The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-03-06

jungle. ''-Copyrighted.
I.
am obliged to confess that have been guilty
or taking part in the determination of the buffa-
To- Were it at all to my credit, | could even
BOAST OF having just killed greater number IL
proportion to the whole number alive than
any other man in this country, except Jim Nc
Nancy. Between my three cowboys and | We
Killed about one-tenth of all the buffalo in the
United States outside Of protected limits. But
blush to own it, and had it not been to save to
science and the public their skins and skeletons
from total loss at the hands of reckless, care
for-naught cowboys, who kill for the
empty honor of slaughter, those buffalo
of ours would now be alive iii not
frozen to death and facing the Montana
billiards. Aud yet since the cowboys are kill
ing them as fast as they can regardless of the
dictates of sense and humanity. and leaving
them to decay where they fall, was it not our
sworn duty to step in ahead of them and save
something from the wreck 1t certainly was;
therefore, curse me no curses for what we did.
Bad luck to the rifles that have swept the buff
falo away. May the. dreams Of tho buffalo
slayers be haunted as mine are now. by buffalo.
shall never get over the death of my last one
To me he was the last of his race and he
seemed to feel it as much as l. But for the alb
solute certainty that some wild cowboy would
kill him ON the next roundup, and leave him
to rot where he fell, I swear | would gladly
have let him 60 in peace, and with my blessing,
| too. But it was no time for sentiment The
Philistines upon him. and to save him
from total annihiation to make him live again
nd nd ;p oil in
the mammal hall OF the National Museum,
slew him.
You see, with US at the Smithsonian 1T wac
what cowboy would call "a ground hog case;'
we were out of buffalo, and we had "got to get
EN- before they were AL gone. AS of my
chums remarked, it was ''the most perfunctory
buffalo hunt on record The buffalo were 60
ing, going, and ''gone" had already been called
when awoke one fine morning to a realiza
ton of the fact that we were caught short on
buffalo, and there were none in the market.
We hadn't series Of specimens. nor even good
ones of any kind, whereas it was our duty to
have the finest series in the world. Could we
expect that the American people wonld be salts
fed with anything short of the best in their
national museum9 By no means. When We
thought of how would be blessed e. by future
generations if we should fail now to secure a
fine series of suecimens e. G.. the editorial
'we' actually trembed in our boots. The
| trouble was, we had lately been so deeply inter
ested in mounting foreign mammals that we had
| failed to watch the disappearance of the bison,
| and we had been thinking all along tina. when
| ever we wanted nne lot OF buffalo we could get
| them. Judge, then, of our surprise, and even
| CONSERVATION. when my numerous letters of in
1uirv all. save one. ELECTED the same response
The buffalo are all gone, and cannot tell you
where you can find any.
But Professor Baird equal to this emer-
| gency, to all others. He said: go at once
in search of buffalo, and secure a series of spec
| linens for the National Museum at all hazards" y
Although the spring was then we'll advanced
and there was very little hope of finding buffalo
| before their shedding should have begun, the
difficulty of finding any at all bid fair to be SO
! great it decided that we should start at once
and search for buffalo until some were found
| even though il took all summer. One of our
| correspondents, DIR. J. c. Merrill, of the army
| reported that there were rumors of the presence
| Of buffalo in four localities in the Northwest
ard we decided that Miles City, NJ. t.. was the
| key to the situation. Accompanied by my old
! friend George H. Hedley. of Medina. and Mr.
| A. H. Forney. one Of my regular laboratory as
sstants. we left Washington on May Is, 1856. on
| what was in fact as we'll as in name, Smith
| sonian exploration for buffalo. AS parting
| sen0-off, Captain b, lately returned from
Montana. triumphantly offered to wager that we
would not get more than one or two buffalo, all
| told.
| am sure no hunter ever started out with a
longer face than did I, and the nearer we got to
| Montana the longer it grew. When reached
| Miles City aud were told by hunters. stockmen,
| army officers and finally noted fur buyer that
there were positively mo buffalo in the country
anvwhere"l know it would have measured
| nearly yard While modify debating whet her
| to 60 up to the Bear Paw mountains or the Pan
handle of Texas prospecting, l had the good
luck to meet Mr. Henry r. Phillips, a ranch
| frop mil n.
| west Of Miles City. Now, l had been advised
that ranchman will never tell a hunter of the
! presence Of game near his ranch. because he
| wants it reserved and preserved for his own
| rifle. Mr. Phillips not that kind of man.
He said, in very quiet but very convincing
way:
'sThere are few buffalo in the bad lands ives,
of my range, for one of my cowboys killed a COW
on Sand creek tho 18th of this month and
about thirty five head have been SEEM If you
go up there and hunt them and stick to it, you re
almost certain to get some in the end
That enough The very next day We
rolled out across the Yellowstone. bound for the
country at the head of the Little Dry. The
weather was then hot, and water was very
| scarce, but the grass was good and IN due time
we pitched our camp in what was supposed Il
be the buffalo country Three days after reach
ing our hunting ground caught Buffalo cal
in the Bad Lands. alive and within two miles o
| our camp. 1t was about two weeks old, but bl
! hard travelling it had become weak it comic
| not keep up with lis mOtner, ana sHe cOOlll
abandoned it. We carried it to camp across
! horse, hurried it off to the ranch where .her
was a mich COW, and eventually got it to tn
Smithsonian in fine condition.
We hunted diligently for three weeks. ant
finally got two solitary old bull buffalo On
had shed half his winter coat, and the other al
of this BODY being quite bare. We took thei
heads and skeletons. and. being we'll Statistic,
that there were more buffalo in that country
FASTENED back to Washington with all speed
5 saving as little as possible about find
, planned to return in the fail and collect at leas
J twenty specimens
! 1t is sad thing to say, but the great Ameri
] can bison is practically gone forever. The Pa
. cifc railroad, the Sharps rifle and mans insatia